レビュー要約

• ユーモアと残酷な事件のバランス、老検死官の飄々とした魅力が支持されている。

レビュー

• Pleasant read, but very poor ending

  The usual characters are all here, and the gentle style is engaging, as always. The solution to the mystery is, however, unrealistic to the point of absurdity.

• A "gentle" mystery series set in Laos with good characters, humor and culture.

  I'm reading this series in the order they were written/published and I am enjoying them so much. A "gentle" mystery series set in Laos with good characters, humor and culture.

• Lovely Tropical Mystery

  This is a mystery set in 1970s Laos - not a setting you would expect! I really enjoyed reading about the history and surroundings of this part of Asia and the small details of the everyday life of the people who lived there. You get a really good idea of the harshness of life under Communist rule, but at the same time can enjoy the humour and day to day troubles of the people who lived there. There is also a supernatural element to this book, which took me by surprise, but I was happy to go along with it. Really different and refreshing, a nice cosy entertaining mystery. I would happily buy another Siri Murder Mystery.

• Humor plus mystery plus the most intriguing characters and settings!

  I am at the stage where if the book doesn't have humor in it then it rates way down the list! The Dr Siri Paiboun books rate very high consequently, The characters are so different than most, the setting so outside the usual that we find them fascinating (I read to my husband so we have double enjoyment!) The setting explanations are like interesting history lessons well delivered. The paranormal elements - not usually my thing - are far more intriguing than disturbing because of their contributions to solving the unsolvable.

• Laos ohne Dr. Siri zu besuchen geht nicht

  Diese Bücher beschreiben auf eine tolle spannende Art das Leben und kulturell-politische Hintergünde von Laos. Aus dem Bucherlös erhalten junge Menschen in Laos Stipendien, mit denen sie verpflichtet werden, in ihren Heimatdörfen als Lehrer zu arbeiten. Super Idee, um Bildung zu fördern.

• The reluctant coroner returns in his second book

  "Thirty-Three Teeth" is the second book in a series by author Colin Cotterill that features Dr. Siri Paiboun. The series' timeframe is set in the mid-late 1970s in Laos, after the communist Pathet Lao insurgents overthrew the Royal Laoist government. Paibourn, trained as a surgeon, was a member of the insurgents, and was surprised to find himself appointed as the national coroner rather than being allowed to retire after the communist victory. (The preceding is more fully explained in the first book of the series, "The Coroner's Lunch".) The books are part murder mystery, part travelogue, and part depiction of what it was like to live in Laos during that timeframe. Although the above sounds somewhat dry and uninteresting, the books themselves are wonderfully funny and inventive. As this book begins, Dr Paibourn, ably assisted by his nurse and by his mortuary assistant (who has Down's Syndrome), begins to investigate the suspicious death of a townsperson who was mauled to death, and then is called to the Laotian capital to identify the nationality of a pair of charred bodies. And then the fun begins. Mr Cotterill's writing is fast-paced and witty, and because he's lived in Southeast Asia for many years, it feels authentic. He shows the new communist government to be as humorously corrupt and incompetent as the recently overthrown Royal government probably was, and that most people probably didn't care who was in charge as they were more concerned with day-to-day survival. Although as a somewhat committed communist Dr Paibourn isn't really religious, the author spreads in some explanation of the prevailing religious beliefs in Laos, as well as adding some supernatural storylines into the novel. Overall, this is a great read. If you're bored with the typical hard-boiled detectives or super crime-scene investigators, this book is so far off of the beaten mystery story path as to be in almost virginal territory. It's intricately plotted, well written, and amusing on several levels. Five stars.

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